2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

First Row has apparently been "seized" by ICE.

 

Anyone able to watch it at all?

 

This is the only working link I've found after the ones at ilemi.eu got shut down ...

http://88.80.11.29/

 

http://www.sportlemon.tv/v-4/0/30/v-403078.html

 

Well folks, Super Cena is back.

 

Then again, he did the job the last few weeks following Mania ...

 

So, Cena went over clean on Brock Lesnar?

 

Sounds it. An "FU," or whatever he calls it now, off the steel steps.

Reports are coming out that Cena is set to take time off, though; apparently to rest some nagging injuries. Can't imagine he'll be out for long. SummerSlam is months away, and the WWE has three mediocre PPVs before then. So I'm sure he won't be terribly missed.

So, isn't the draft coming up, or something? If it hasn't been announced already, then I'm sure Triple H will spill the beans on Raw tomorrow.

 

They can probably afford to be without him for the slag-assed PPVs. I'd think (if WWE is smart) those would be the time to give some the mid-card talent that's ready for a push an opportunity to step up. If you're going on that theory, this should be Cody Rhodes' time to shine.

If Cena's out for a month or two, where does Lesnar turn his attention to? Punk? Orton? A reset with Big Show?

 

Decided to order the show with a couple buddies last night on a last minute type of thing.

I've got to be honest: I was pleasantly surprised with this PPV. There were two really outstanding matches in Sheamus vs. Bryan and Jericho vs. Punk. And Lesnar-Cena wasn't a particularly well wrestled match but told a pretty darn good story.

To me, Sheamus/Bryan stole the show. Really excellent in ring psychology stuff and Bryan was outstanding. I know he's on fire right now but if you add the reactions he's pulling from the crowd to his wrestling ability, Bryan might be the top guy in the company right now. I don't think that's a stretch. He was outstanding and I hope whenever they do the draft, he shifts to Raw and gets put in another high profile program. I'd love to see a Punk-Bryan build toward SummerSlam but either way, he needs to be top of the card right now.

Punk/Jericho was every bit as good here as they were at WM, in my opinion. Some outstanding technical stuff and Punk's Macho Man elbow to Jericho through the Spanish announce table was a big time spot. I didn't particularly care for the whole alcohol angle but it was a good match. I like that Punk has had the title on him for a while now, the belt feels more meaningful now than when they were handing it off once a month.

On Cena/Lesnar, I'm not sure how anyone could watch it and just blindly hate on Cena. I know that people are saying this is just another Super Cena situation but it felt pretty far from that to me. This was a squash match in favor of Lesnar from the beginning. He beat the hell out of Cena, and major blood was drawn. I wasn't sure if it was on purpose because Cena was bleeding pretty profusely from his head (a la Austin) and they had to stop the match twice to slow it down. He won with a late comeback, yes, but he had to wrap his hand in a chain and punch Lesnar then hit an AA on the stairs to do it. No five moves of doom or any of that, just two big shots to finish the deal. Shocked that Lesnar would do the job his first match back but I thought it was pretty well done the way they did it. Not sure what Cena's post match speech was about but sounds like he's going to be taking some time away.

I didn't watch much wrestling when Lesnar was around the first time but he's really underwhelming to me in just about every capacity. No personality, not a particularly good wrestler and now he doesn't even have the physique that made him so intimidating. Not sure where he goes from here but I wouldn't mind a program with Orton. It's time to put Randy back in the main event picture.

Not much else really jumped out at me but I'm really disappointed in the way the WWE has just crapped on Miz and Ziggler. Three months ago Ziggler was main eventing the Royal Rumble. Last night, he got squashed by the Funkasaurus.

 

I'm thinking there won't be a draft. They've pretty much killed the brand separation. The roster online no longer designates between Raw and Smackdown guys.

 

Methinks the stage for Trips v. Lesnar will be sewn tonight.